A pivotal moment in world history occurred when Mary Ball Washington forbade her eldest son from joining the British navy as a cabin boy—one-third of whom died at sea.

After obeying his mother this time, George Washington lived to fight and lead another day. Despite a sometimes complex relationship with his mother, he said a maternal hand led him to manhood, Craig Shirley writes in “Mary Ball Washington: The Untold Story of George Washington’s Mother.”

Shirley joins “The Right Side of History” to talk about the book and why the mother of the Father of Our Country was a far more nuanced person than the “June Cleaver” or “Joan Crawford” depictions in other Washington biographies.